Steve Warrichaiet

When a person drives drunk, it's akin to that person pulling out a gun and firing into a crowd.

GREEN BAY -- Police say a 40-year-old Green Bay driver was drunk when he struck two pedestrians — a man and woman — on the city’s east side just before midnight Sunday, then drove about seven blocks home with the man’s body lodged in his windshield.

The driver, Steve Warrichaiet, parked his 1995 Dodge Intrepid in the garage at his home at 2128 Eastman Ave., then called police about six hours later, saying he had been involved in an accident and believed he had hit someone.

Warrichaiet was arrested soon afterward. Police are seeking charges of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, drunken driving, causing injury while driving drunk, hit-and-run causing death, hit-and-run causing injury and hiding a corpse.

Police initially were called at 11:57 p.m. to the 1000 block of Elizabeth Street for a report of a crash.

They found a 41-year-old woman lying in the street. She was taken to a local hospital and reported in serious condition.

At 5:42 a.m. Monday, the police received the call from Warrichaiet. The 50-year-old man lodged in Warrichaiet’s windshield was pronounced dead at the Eastman Avenue scene. An autopsy on the 50-year-old was performed Monday, but the results were not released.

...Warrichaiet is expected to appear Tuesday in Brown County Circuit Court. He has no prior court record, according to a search of state records online.

There are significant differences, but Warrichaiet's case reminds of the Chante Mallard story.

Unlike Mallard and to Warrichaiet's credit (if it's fair to say that he deserves any credit whatsoever), he was the one who called the police, albeit hours too late.

Although it's possible, I can't imagine that this was the first time that Warrichaiet drove while impaired.

If driving drunk was a habit with him, it's a tragic turn of events that he had to kill someone and injure another before he was caught and taken off the road.

Warrichaiet's future doesn't look too bright if his trial goes the way Mallard's did.

A jury sentenced "Mallard to 50 years in prison for murder and an additional 10 for tampering with evidence. She will serve her sentences concurrently, giving her a total of 50 years in jail. Mallard will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years."

The danger of drunk driving can't be underestimated.

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UPDATE, JANUARY 21, 2014: ANOTHER Wisconsinite lodged in windshield.

This case ended much better for the victim in the windshield. Steven Gove of Manitowoc survived.

“God is good. He had his hands on me that day,” said Steven Gove of Manitowoc, the newspaper carrier who escaped serious injury after he was stuck in the windshield of a moving car that hit him on Saturday night.

“I’m just happy to be alive,” Gove said Monday as he recalled the bizarre hit-and-run crash at the intersection of Marshall and South 16th streets, four blocks east of Washington Park. Police arrested a 20-year-old Manitowoc man who allegedly was intoxicated when he hit Gove as he was riding his three-wheeled bike.

...“I was conscious for the whole time,” Gove said.

“Everything was in the car except for my knees and feet. I turned to him and said, ‘Hello, I’m the guy you hit on the bicycle,’” he said. “I had no idea at all why he wasn’t acknowledging me.”

The driver continued east on Marshall Street, ran a stop sign at South 14th Street, crashed into a vehicle and kept going, according to Manitowoc police.

Gove, 56, said he was planning to see his lawyer about the accident.

...He harbors no ill will against the driver, however, Gove said.

“I have no malice toward him,” he said. “I hope he can get his life straightened out. He’s a young man. He deserves a second chance.”

The driver finally noticed Gove after he stopped at his home in the 1100 block of South 13th Street.

“He looked at me and said ‘Who are you? What are you doing in the car?’” Gove said. “He started freaking out: ‘I’m going to jail, I’m going to jail.’”

Yeah, I think it would be a good idea for the driver to go to jail for a while, more than one night.